Hon Sand Wraith Hero Guide

Sand Wraith

Sand Wraith in HoN is identical to Spectre in Dota. This is a farming agility carry that has two escape mechanisms, a map-controlling, teleporting ultimate, and great passive ability that reflects tons of damage back onto the other team. Let’s take a look at the abilities and learn how to best play Sand Wraith:

Desert’s Curse (q)

Sand Wraith “covers the ground ahead of him with sand”, damaging and slowing heroes in a path in front of him and allowing him to chase faster and pass through any terrain. This can be targetted on a hero (and will track towards them and hit them even if they change path) or just placed on the ground. This is a great way to chase down heroes as well as an escape mechanism that can be used at the first sign of a gank to escape into some trees or across otherwise impassable terrain. It may even be used to last hit creeps and harass enemy heroes from long distance in a very challenging lane. You should get this at level one and usually max it out first unless you really know what you’re doing and want to put points into Deserted instead for early kills.

Deserted (passive)

Sand Wraith “preys on those who are alone”, dealing bonus damage to an enemy hero with no allied heroes are nearby. This works very well with Sand Wraith’s ultimate, and of course in any situation where you are going one on one with an opponent. Should be maxxed out early to compliment your ultimate.

Dissipate (passive)

“Using sand itself as a shield,” Sand Wraith deflects a portion of any incoming damage (20% at level 4) back in an AOE around himself. This has deadly implications in late game battles. Should level this up after your other skills unless you really are getting harassed hard early and need it to survive.

Mirage (ultimate) (r)

The Sand Wraith “tricks the mind”, creating an illusion of himself around all enemy heroes, which attacks them for several seconds. By clicking your ultimate again, you can then teleport to any of these illusions and start attacking the hero yourself. A good way to do this is to ult, let the illusions attack for 3-4 seconds, then teleport in and use Desert’s Curse to chase down and finish up the kill. As a last resort, you can also use Mirage to escape from a gank and teleport quickly to another enemy hero on the map and try to escape from there.

Strategy

Early Game

You need to farm as much as possible. Make use of Iron Shield (Poor Man’s Shield), Logger’s Hatchet (Quelling Blade), and plenty of health regeneration consumables to make last hitting and surviving in lane as easy as possible. If worse comes to worse, you can spam Desert’s Curse to get last hits and harass the enemy. Try to lane with a ranged support hero like Demented Shaman that can heal and protect you while you farm.

Mid Game

Do your best to keep getting last hits and try to farm a Sword of the High (Relic) so you can make Mock of Brilliance (Radiance). This is a phenominal item on Spectre as you can deal damage over time to all enemy heroes with your ultimate + Mock of Brilliance, and you generally will be doing a lot of chasing anyways which lends itself to this item as well. Farming 3800 for this item can be really hard, especially if you are getting ganked constantly, which any smart opponent will do. Make sure your team gets wards up to help you see ganks coming as much as possible, and use Desert’s Curse to escape into trees whenever possible to escape ganks. Also, keep an eye on the minimap, and try to use your ultimate when your team is making a gank, so you can swoop in and get the kill, which will greatly aid your farm.

Escape across any terrain with Desert's Curse

If you are having a really hard time farming, then go for a more conservative build and get a Nullfire Blade (Diffusal Blade), which can be made in small pieces so you can get it even if you’re dying a lot. It’s also a great item on Sand Wraith since it will burn the mana of all enemy heroes when you ultimate, and can help you chase them down with purge.

Late Game

After you’ve gotten your Mock of Brilliance, Nullfire Blade, or both, it’s time to tank up so that you can absorb as much damage as possible and reflect it back onto the other team with your passive skill, Dissipate. So grab a Behemoth’s Heart, which will give you a ton more hit points, and also adds 10% to all damage you do (including Mock of Brilliance damage), since Sand Wraith is agility. At this point you can just get in the other team’s face and wipe them out as the amount of damage they will be taking from Mock of Brilliance and Dissipate is just too much.